This past Saturday, I was on my way to the Canadian Martyrs’ shrine in Midland when I opened the door to pick up the paper. The National Post didn’t have as many words on the cover as usual. (For Americans, the National Post is a Canadian paper somewhere between USA Today and the Wall Street Journal.) Instead, it had a full-page ad on the front page. Is the biggest news in Canada that Land’s end has unconditional guarantees? I thought papers were supposed to give us the news; ads go inside to help pay for it but the main thing should be news.
Is this a sign of things to come? Are newspapers going to become just another form f advertising junk mail? I don’t know.
This is, however, a sign of where our society has gotten. Consumerism has slowly swept in but now it’s crass. It is one thing to look to satisfy our cravings, it’s another that this becomes overwhelming and crass. The most important thing is not if I’m dressed in Land’s End or Wal-Mart no-name brand but often culture wants us to think so.
Instead of a culture of having, of crass consumerism, the Church teaches us a culture of being where what is most important is that I am a Christian, a religious, and a legionary. Even though it is so easy to value what we have, true happiness comes from being.
